She was repeatedly raped and forced to bear seven of his children, three of whom she raised in the dungeon while three were taken upstairs to live "normal" lives. The seventh died soon after birth.

Elisabeth's plight was only uncovered after she slipped a note in the pocket of her daughter Kerstin's pocket when she went for treatment at a local hospital. Josef Frizl was sentenced to life in jail in March this year.

Shannon Matthews

The disappearance of the nine-year-old girl from her home in Dewsbury, West Yorks sparked a £3 million pound police investigation and attracted wide media coverage.

But a month after she was reported missing she was found alive in the home of a distant relative, Michael Donovan. It later emerged that he had been acting in cahoots with the girl's mother Karen, as part of a plan to pocket newspaper reward money.

Both Donovan and Karen Matthews were jailed for eight years for kidnapping, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.

Danielle Cramer

A 15-year-old girl who went missing in June 2006 was discovered by police a year later, locked in a secret understairs cupboard in West Hartford, Connecticut and pale due to a lack of sunlight.

Police had gone to the house to arrest Adam Gault, 41, whom they suspected of murder, but instead managed to free Danielle.

Natasha Ryan

A teenage Australian girl who had been missing for nearly five years reappeared during the trial of a man the prosecution said had confessed to murdering her.

Natasha Ryan was found in a cupboard in a house she shared with her boyfriend, aged 18 in 2003.

She had last been seen in 1998, being driven away by an unidentified man from her Queensland home.

Shawn Hornbeck

Last January, police in America searching for missing 13-year-old William Ownby were stunned when they also found Shawn Hornbeck at a flat in St Louis.

Shawn had last been seen aged 12 in October 2002. A man was charged with kidnapping.

Elizabeth Smart

Nine months after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart disappeared in 2002, the pretty blonde teenager reappeared a few miles from her family home in Salt Lake City.

She was found in the company of a married couple who said they could speak to God, as all three wandered up a commercial street in the suburban town of Sandy.

Charlene Lunnon and Lisa Hoodless

Two 10-year-old girls were missing from their home in Hastings for three days in 1999 before they were discovered safe and well near Eastbourne.

They were found after a suspicious member of the public alerted police after a massive police search failed to find them. A man was arrested.